Games at work

This is an excerpt from an interview with me by Jenn Webb. You can read the complete interview on O’Reilly Radar.

How do you see the social media aspects of gaming seeping into day-to-day life –could social media based games some day have a place in job training or other areas of the workplace, for instance?

Games certainly can transform the workplace, though I want to caution that it’s very easy to make the mistake of dressing up everyday work activities as games by just tacking on some points and badges. That’s not game design, and people will recognize that it’s not. In the process of failing, approaches like this generate cynicism toward the effort. Games need to be designed to be games first and foremost. They must be intrinsically rewarding, enjoyed for their own sake.

That said, I absolutely believe that games can work at work. As you suggest, for example, they have great strengths for training. Games create a safe space for people to test out their mastery of a set of skills in ways that aren’t possible or practical in the real world. They can also help people figure out how best to handle different situations. Say, for example, that you created a game to develop management skills. You might allow players to assign values to their in-game avatars like “nurturing,” “autocratic,” or “optimistic,” which lead to different behavior paths. Players could then examine how these traits play out in a situation filled with characters who have different values like “dependability,” “autonomy,” and “efficiency.” A structure like this could not only impart insight about management styles, but also invite introspection about how an individual’s own personality traits may lead to success and failure in the real world.